“6/09/2009, 12:29pm EST”
re: “April 15th”
Jakob Lodwick says:
Recall that, by your nature as a human being, you have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and no reason exists why these rights can be taken away from you. [original emphasis]
I imagine Mr. Lodwick intends this as a profound and rational offensive against the collection of taxes (hence the title, “April 15th”.) Not only does his sentiment extend far beyond the scope of mere tax collection, but every shred of meaning in this sentence is eminently challengeable. A sampling:
- One is not entitled to ask readers to “recall” something that one has not yet genuinely proven or justified.
- A rote appeal to “your nature as a human being” requires extremely deeper preface than is provided. As it stands, it is indulgent, ambiguous, and, if I read between the lines correctly, fallaciously exclusionary with regard to other species.
- If Lodwick means “rights” here as inalienable pieces of “human nature,” without which the human thing itself does not exist, then he would be committed to the absurdity that an animal which is biologically human in all ways, but fails to be as free as he would like, is in fact not a human. On the other hand, if Lodwick means “rights” as in legal protections, then these are by their nature alienable, and thus do not derive from “human nature” as they “can be taken away from you.”
- “No reason exists why these can be taken away from you.” Actually, plenty of reasons may exist, depending upon the circumstances. If this is supposed to be shorthand for, “No good reason exists…”, that isn’t true either. Individuals’ pursuit of their own small-picture happiness, for example, is precisely why our natural world is being destroyed at an exponential rate. For a smaller example, I think Lodwick would agree that a serial killer shouldn’t be allowed to pursue his own happiness, despite Lodwick’s insistence that his right to pursue happiness either cannot or should not be deprived.
Lodwick’s sentiment — and it is sentiment, not reason — is extremely common and destructive. As you may have noticed, it fails to acknowledge a limited pool of resources by which we can experience life, liberty, and happiness — thereby failing to acknowledge that one man’s “life,” “liberty,” and “happiness” is necessarily satisfied to the detriment of the rest. Obviously a balance can be struck, and that is what nature accomplished pre-civilization, over the course of billions of years.
In a stunning show of hubris, Man has decided He knows better. He has fucked nature’s balance precisely by assuming His own “right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” — again, to the inevitable detriment of all others, fellow Men or otherwise, whether or not He is aware of this reality. Those of us who fail to recognize this crucial fact are understandably unable to determine the eminently unassailable reasons for why Lodwick’s sentiment is so false and destructive.
It’s really important to figure this out. Like yesterday. But hey, Lodwick doesn’t want to pay his goddamn taxes. That’s really important too.
Never leave home without it.
